Team England has arrived on Pakistani soil after a halt of 17 years to play a historic T20I international series with the Men in Green. It will be a seven-match bilateral saga between these two giant cricketing nations which will play a huge role in their preparations for the upcoming T20 World Cup next month. The National Stadium of Karachi will be hosting this series opener between the home side Pakistan and the visiting Three Lions on Tuesday.
It will be a tough test for the English skipper Jos Buttler who is yet to win the first international series since taking over as a full-time limited-overs captain in June 2022. On the other hand, Babar Azam also has the tough task of finding the perfect team combination for the forthcoming world event. After the anti-climax of the recently concluded Asia Cup, he will be looking forward to regrouping his boys in this home series.
The 19-member squad of the Three Lions features five uncapped names Olly Stone, Jordan Cox, Tom Helm, Will Jacks, and Luke Wood. Chris Jordan and Liam Livingstone have missed the flight due to injuries while the other big names like Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow, and Jason Roy have been sidelined for various reasons. Jos Buttler’s recovery from the calf injury is still going on hence we can see Moeen Ali taking the charge for the initial games.
Shad Masood is ready for his awaited T20I debut
Fakhar Zaman and injured Shaheen Shah Afridi are the only two from the T20 World Cup squad who won’t be participating in this series. The 32-year-old opener Shan Masood has received his maiden T20 international call-up and also got a ticket to Australia for the Word event. The batting all-rounder Aamer Jamal and the mystery spinner from Sindh, Abrar Ahmed are the other two inductees who will be seen in Pakistan colours for the first time.
What have they done so far?
Pakistan has gone through a lot of ups and downs in their Asia Cup campaign where they touched highs several times but failed to stay consistent by it. They kick-started their Super 4 journey with thumping victories over the arch-rivals India and Afghanistan but ended up on the losing side against Sri Lanka in the following two fixtures to finish as the runners-up.
The star wicket-keeping opener Mohammad Rizwan topped the run-scoring charts of the competition fetching 281 runs from six innings but also drew heavy criticism for his 55-run stand at a strike rate of 112.24 in the Final.
England’s most recent T20I campaign ended in a 2-1 loss against South Africa in the home conditions. The Three Lions were at the leading position of 1-0 at one point, but couldn’t sustain it further and lost the rest of the two fixtures against the Proteas. It was the second consecutive T20I series defeat on the home turf for the newly appointed skipper Jos Buttler who is still trying to get his feet as a captain of the English white-ball side.
Head to Head record
The two former World Champions have faced each other 21 times in the shortest format of international cricket. And the head-to-head count of those 21 encounters favours the Three Lions with 14 triumphs over the counterparts while the Men in Green have emerged victorious on only six occasions. The Cornered Tigers have a great opportunity to shorten the lead of Englishmen as there will be seven more chapters added to this rivalry.
The last time these two combatants squared off in a T20I stage was Pakistan’s England tour in 2021 where the home team lifted the series trophy. After levelling the ODI series by 1-1, the visitors continued the triumphant run in the shortest format too by winning the first T20I fixture but couldn’t take it further and lost the three-match saga on a 1-2 scoreline. In the decider fixture, the Pakistani bowling unit fought bravely while defending the total of 155 runs and eventually suffered a narrow defeat by three wickets.
There is a historic rivalry between these two cricketing giant nations as both of them are battling against each other for years. Down the memory lane, England lifted their first ICC trophy after knocking Pakistan out from the semi-final stages to eventually end up on the champions podium of the 2010 World T20 event. It was also the first incident where Pakistan failed to make it to the finals of World T20 after featuring in the first two editions.
Key Players
It’s high time for Babar Azam to lead the Men in Green by setting an example
Babar Azam: The Pakistani captain has been recently suffering from a dreadful run in the format which is considered his favourite one. Babar failed a big time in the 2022 Asia Cup where he could only 68 runs from six innings at a minimal average of just 11.33.
It was a forgettable continental campaign for the third highest ranked T20I batter who could cross the individual 15-run mark only once in the six appearances.
Alex Hales: The 33-year-old English opener is going to make his return to international cricket after a halt of more than three years as his last appearance was dated back in March 2022. He has experience of playing a whopping number of 60 T20I games and has 1644 runs including eight fifties and a solitary hundred under his helm.
Hales is the most experienced member of this English squad, having featured in multiple Pakistan Super League seasons for Karachi Kings and Islamabad United.
Predicted Playing XI
Pakistan: Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Babar Azam (c), Haidar Ali, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Asif Ali, Mohammad Nawaz, Shadab Khan, Haris Rauf, Naseem Shah, Mohammad Hasnain
England: Alex Hales, Philip Salt (wk), Dawid Malan, Harry Brook, Moeen Ali (c), Ben Duckett, Sam Curran, David Willey, Richard Gleeson, Adil Rashid, Reece Topley
Prediction
Both of the combatants are turning up for this series aiming to regain the lost touch in the fastest format of cricket.
The presence of multiple match-winners in the Pakistani squad and home conditions will hand over an advantage to the home team. Meanwhile, it will be a litmus test for the touring English roster in such conditions which are unfamiliar for many of them.